The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Stop valves (sometimes referred to as “shut-off valves” or “cut-off valves”) are used, for example, under sinks, behind toilets and in a variety of other plumbing implementations to connect water supply systems to faucets, toilets, refrigerators, water filtration systems, dishwashers, etc. via water supply lines. The stop valves typically include an inlet that is often connected to a copper, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), iron, cross-linked polyethylene, or other type of water supply line and one or more outlets connected to braided or rigid supply lines. The inlets and outlets of the stop valves may be connected to various types of water supply lines. As another example, the water supply lines may be formed of plastic. There are various types of stop valves including straight stop valves, angled stop valves, multi-turn stop valves, quarter or half turn stop valves, etc.
There are two main categories of stop valves referred to as general purpose stop valves and tamper resistant stop valves. General purpose stop valves include a handle for opening and closing the stop valves. The handles are typically oval-shaped and/or have a shape similar to a cross-section of a prolate spheroid (or elongated sphere). The handles are held on to broach splines of stems of the stop valves via respective screws. The handles are used to turn the stems, which in turn opens and closes the stop valves.
The tamper resistant stop valves typically do not include a handle and require a special key or flat-head screw driver to open and close the valves. Tamper resistant stop valves are often used in hospitals, restaurants, hotels, businesses and/or other places to prevent unauthorized actuation of the stop valves.
Calcium build-up and/or corrosion can occur in stop valves over time, which causes the stop valves to stick and thus be difficult to open and close. As a result, it can be difficult to turn the handle of a general purpose stop valve and a key of a tamper resistant stop valve. To turn the handle of a general purpose stop valve, a pipe wrench, pliers or channel locks are often used in an attempt to turn the handle. The handles however are not designed to handle the torque that can be applied using a pipe wrench, pliers and channel locks, which results in the handles bending, deforming, breaking, stripping and becoming unusable. When this occurs, the handles and/or the entire stop valves need to be replaced.